Parker: Declaration planted seeds that blossomed in Constitution

Sunday

Jul 7, 2013 at 12:01 AMJul 7, 2013 at 3:36 PM

When I am assigned to teach Major American Writers at East Carolina, one of the research paper options I offer students is the opportunity to discuss how the U.S. Constitution addresses issues raised in The Declaration. Sadly, no one has taken up the challenge.

Mike Parker / Columnist

I suppose Monday is not too terribly distant from last Thursday’s July 4th celebration, so one more column on The Declaration of Independence is in order.

When I am assigned to teach Major American Writers at East Carolina, one of the research paper options I offer students is the opportunity to discuss how the U.S. Constitution addresses issues raised in The Declaration. Sadly, no one has taken up the challenge.

In fact, few people really understand The Declaration was the seeding of a garden, but the U.S. Constitution is the flowers and fruit.

For example, a major dispute between England and her American colonies revolved around the issue of taxation without representation. In the list of grievances Thomas Jefferson outlined to justify the separation from the Mother Country, we read: “For imposing taxes on us without our Consent.”

How did the Constitution address this issue?

Remember: Jefferson wrote that whenever any government becomes destructive of the end of securing our individual liberties, the people have a right to alter or abolish that government and institute a new form of government “laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness.”

When those who crafted the Constitution created a new form of government, a compromise created the Senate, to represent the interests of the individual states, and a House of Representatives, to advocate for the interests of the people.

We apportion House seats based on population. The purpose of the census every 10 years is to reassess the population of the states and reassign, as necessary, representatives in the U.S. House.

The Constitution provides “all bills for raising Revenue shall originate in the House.” Why? The House represents the will of the people. In order to achieve “taxation with representation,” the Constitution puts the power for raising revenue in the hands of the House of Representatives.

Article I of the Constitution outlines the responsibilities and powers of the Congress — the legislative branch of government.

To combat the excesses of executive power, Article II defines and limits the powers of the President. To address complaints about the king’s interference in judicial matters, the Constitution establishes the powers and duties of the judicial branch in Article III.

A look at the Bill of Rights, the first 10 amendments to our Constitution, gives greater evidence of addressing specific grievances against the king and Parliament.

The third amendment of the Bill of Rights forbids quartering troops in peacetime and only allows for quartering as described by law during war to answer. The Third Amendment answers the complaint that the king was ‘Quartering large bodies of armed troops among us.’ ”

The king denied colonists the right of trial by jury, so the Sixth and Seventh amendments deal with the right of trial by jury.

The Declaration accused the king of “transporting us beyond the Seas to be tried for pretended offenses,” so Fourth and Fifth amendments guarantee trial by an impartial jury within the district where the alleged crime took place, due process of law, and the right to a speedy trial to prevent the accused from sitting in prison, untried, for years.

Many more parallels exist between The Declaration and the U.S. Constitution. However, these few examples to demonstrate the solid connection the founders saw between the document they produced to announce to the world the united colonies were declaring their independence — and the document they produced just a dozen years later to create that new form of government.

All of us need to have more than a nodding acquaintance with our basic documents.

I have tried to whet your appetite just a bit.

Mike Parker is a columnist for The Free Press. You can reach him at mparker16@suddenlink.net or in care of this newspaper.